Don Herbert, RIP

Aw, man:

Don Herbert, who explained the wonderful world of science to millions of young baby boomers on television in the 1950s and '60s as "Mr. Wizard" and did the same for another generation of youngsters on the Nickelodeon cable TV channel in the 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 89.

Herbert died at his home in Bell Canyon after a long battle with multiple myeloma, said Tom Nikosey, Herbert's son-in-law.

A low-key, avuncular presence who wore a tie and white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, Herbert launched his weekly half-hour science show for children on NBC in 1951.

I have a friend who loves the "Mythbusters" show on the Discovery channel. She says if her teachers had made science seem like that much fun in high school, she would have learned more. Mr. Wizard was the MythBusters of my generation; he actually made some of us skip some of the cartoon shows. If he'd still been on TV these days, he would have been the first one to show us the Mentos-in-the-Pepsi trick, and he would have explained why it happens, too.